Mediware’s history of excellent product support and HCLL’s robust functionality were two of the driving factors behind WFH’s selection of HCLL for their five blood banks.

“We have used Mediware products for close to 15 years,” said Betsy Ronk, WFH’s information systems manager of laboratory applications. “When it came to selecting a new blood bank system, having access to quality support from knowledgeable clinicians and technicians was a top priority.”

WFH is a large integrated health care system, providing almost 1000 beds across five acute care hospitals. They also operate an outpatient network of approximately 40 clinics throughout the greater Milwaukee area. To operate at peak efficiency, WFH consolidated services offered by system hospitals, centralized lab and transfusion services, standardized operating procedures, information systems and instruments across all WFH care facilities.

Because WFH’s organization includes both a centralized transfusion service (CTS) and hospital-based blood banks, it needed a system with multi-facility inventory support which enabled the system to share patient data between individual facilities.

“Each of our metro area facilities offers specialized services, such as cardiac, neo-natal, oncology and so forth. It is very common for a patient to be treated by more than one facility,” said Ronk. “Being able to share treatment-specific data through HCLL is critical to ensure safe and efficient patient care.”

An added benefit important to WFH was Mediware’s ability to import its historical patient data into HCLL for rapid reference at each facility.

“We have over 15 years of patient data that our blood bankers and clinicians need access to,” said Ronk. “Using HCLL, they have seamless access to this information.”

A further benefit of using a common system and operating procedure across the system is the ability of WFH blood bank staff to easily rotate between facilities without re-training.

“From an efficiency perspective, the fact that each hospital uses the same software in the same way, offers us tremendous flexibility and productivity improvements,” concluded Ronk.
“Mediware prides itself in our ability to help large health systems improve efficiency, productivity and safety,” said John Damgaard, Mediware’s senior vice president and chief operating officer. “HCLL’s true enterprise-level capabilities in inventory management, clinical safeguards and data management are market leading and we are pleased to add Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare to our growing list of IDN customers using our most recent products.”

About Wheaton Franciscan HealthcareWheaton Franciscan Healthcare (WFH) is a Catholic, not-for-profit organization with more than 100 health and shelter organizations in Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Illinois. Started by the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters more than 125 years ago and formally incorporated in 1983, WFH has corporate services offices in Wheaton, Illinois and Glendale, Wisconsin.

In Southeast Wisconsin, WFH is co-sponsored by the Wheaton Franciscan and Felician Sisters and has nearly 12,000 associates, making it the second largest private employer in the area. Hospitals include All Saints in Racine, St. Joseph and St. Francis in Milwaukee, Elmbrook Memorial in Brookfield, The Wisconsin Heart Hospital in Wauwatosa, and a new site in Franklin. The region also includes Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group with nearly 300 physicians in more than 40 locations, a network of outpatient centers, four long-term care facilities, Home Health, and Hospice. For more information, visit www.mywheaton.org.

Bill Miller is the CEO of Mediware and a recognized leader in the healthcare industry. He has a rich background that includes a more than 20 year history of bringing groundbreaking growth strategies and technological innovation to the healthcare marketplace and a proven track record of launching and leading highly successful healthcare IT companies. Prior to joining Mediware in July 2017, Bill was the CEO of OptumInsight, a division of Optum, which is the health services platform of UnitedHealth Group. Under Bill’s leadership, OptumInsight experienced unprecedented revenue growth, expanded margins, and claimed a transformative position in the health services market. He led the evolution of Optum into the leader in health care analytics and launched several tech-enabled business platforms. Prior to OptumInsight, Bill served as senior vice president of technologies at Cerner Corporation, where he had global responsibility for the company’s managed services, outsourcing, and technology services business units. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in urban planning and public policy.

Chris HesterPresident, Home Care

Chris Hester founded Kinnser Software in 2003, when he developed an innovative web-based application for home health agencies. He served as the company’s president for 14 years of rapid growth, which saw Kinnser become the most widely used EMR in home health and expand into new markets, including hospice and private duty home care. Kinnser Software was acquired by Mediware in June 2017. Today, Chris serves as president of Mediware’s home care division, which includes applications for home care, home health, and rehabilitation.

Rob WeberPresident, Community Care

Rob Weber serves as president of Mediware’s diverse community care division, overseeing applications for behavioral health, homeless management, long-term services and supports, medication management, and blood management. Rob has held this position since 2017, and he previously also managed many of Mediware’s other clinical applications, including blood services and medication management. Rob joined Mediware in January 2004, originally serving as executive vice president and general counsel, and he continues to serve as the company’s general counsel for legal and regulatory matters.

Robert WatkinsChief Financial Officer

Robert “Bob” Watkins started at Mediware as corporate controller in 2008. In 2011, he was promoted to vice president and corporate controller and to CFO in 2012. Prior to joining Mediware, Bob held a number of financial management positions, including serving as corporate controller for Titan Machinery (TITN), a $1 billion provider of agricultural and construction equipment. His prior experience also includes a corporate controller position at AFS Financial, where he also served as chief financial officer. Bob is a current member of the AICPA and Financial Executives International.

Joel DolisyChief Technology Officer

In his role as chief technology officer, Joel Dolisy manages both product development and information technology for Mediware. Before joining Mediware as CTO, Joel was CTO of Kinnser Software, where he led the company’s engineering and product organizations. Before Kinnser, Joel was SVP, CTO, and CIO for SolarWinds, a leading provider of IT management software. With more than 20 years of experience in product strategy and software engineering, Joel is a leader in developing and delivering commercial software products to market.

Chris StansburyExecutive Vice President, Growth

As executive vice president of growth, Chris Stansbury works with all sales teams within Mediware to create and standardize best practices for selling, interacting, contracting, and negotiating with clients. With over 25 years of health care IT services sales leadership, Chris has experience in all aspects of health care, including the provider side when he was at Cerner, the payer side when he was at TriZetto, and the Wellness side as he most recently was a vice president at Welltok.

As the senior vice president of marketing and communications, Shoma Sarkar Thomas oversees the marketing strategy for all Mediware products and is responsible for building the Mediware brand, which includes public relations, communications, and all strategic marketing activities. Previously, Shoma served as vice president of marketing for Kinnser Software, where she led marketing and strategic growth initiatives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from the University of Virginia.

Stephen GreenbergSVP of Human and Social Services

Stephen (Steve) Greenberg is responsible for Mediware’s Homeless & Community, Behavioral Health and LTSS businesses. Prior to joining Mediware, Steve was President of DecisionHealth, LLC for six years, after which time he successfully helped execute the sale of this revenue cycle management decision-support company. Before that, he worked at OptumInsight for 12 years as a senior leader of many of its provider software and service solutions and, in his last role as SVP, Government Solutions, built a prospective and retrospective fraud, waste and abuse detection capability for UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare and Medicaid businesses.

Dana StreckSenior Vice President, Human Capital

Dana Streck leads Mediware’s human capital organization. Before joining Mediware, Dana was senior director of workforce transitions for Cerner Corporation, where she welcomed and transitioned new team members into Cerner through client partnerships and acquisitions. With more than 15 years of experience in human resources, Dana has successfully partnered with business leaders to drive workforce initiatives that benefit both companies and clients, while simultaneously creating environments that support growth and innovation.

Jason BakerVP, Corporate Development

As vice president of corporate development for Mediware, Jason Baker is responsible for acquisitions, partnerships, and new market strategies. Prior to joining Mediware, he was a managing director for Alpine Healthcare Advisors and Healthcare Growth Partners, both of which provide investment banking services in healthcare technology and services. Jason also served as head corporate development executive for Cerner Corporation. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri.

Wes LittleVice President, Applied Insights

As vice president of analytics, Wes Little leads Mediware’s unified analytics strategy to deliver data-driven insights and innovative solutions. He previously served as director of product management for Kinnser Software, where he oversaw rapid product innovation for the company’s home health electronic medical record software. Wes holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington and Lee University.